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Vis à Vis (episode)
A body snatcher switches physical forms with Paris. Summary The Doctor finds Lt. Tom Paris inside a holoprogram called Grease Monkey, which was a 1960s-style car garage complete with "surf rock" music blasting from a nearby portable radio. The Doctor calls Paris' attention to the fact that his new Medical Assistant has been rather lax in his duties to improve upon his skills as the assistant, instead choosing to spend the time he should have been spending in sickbay working on a mechanical "patient" of sorts, a vintage 1969 Chevy Camaro. Suddenly, Tom Paris gets a call from the bridge to take the helm, which he shows up wearing his garage gear. An alien ship emerges out of a spatial distortion just ahead, its outer hull sparking with what appears to be an energy overload. Tom Paris believes that the ship is being powered by a coaxial warp drive, an experimental propulsion system that could be the cause of the spatial distortion. Tuvok's readings from the Tactical console reveal that the alien ship's warp engines are overloading. Realizing how dangerous a coaxial warp drive explosion could be to space, and with the crew unable to hail its pilot or beam him out of the ship, Paris decides to create a symmetric warp field that could possibly contain any instabilities in the alien ship's warp core, though it could also possibly cause Voyager to collide with the ship. Janeway gives Paris' idea the go-ahead, and Paris carefully steers Voyager close to the alien ship so that its warp field also surrounds that of the other ship. With the alien ship's warp core now powering down, Voyager receives a hail from the other ship. It is a humanoid male alien being who is requesting for repairs to his ship, which Janeway offers help for and which the humanoid male accepts before beaming aboard Voyager. The humanoid male identifies himself as Steth, a test pilot from the fourth planet of the Benthan system who is currently test-piloting the very ship that the crew of Voyager had put themselves at risk to rescue. As Janeway talks with Steth about helping him repair his ship, Commander Chakotay has a talk with Paris about the lieutenant's seemingly lackadaisical attitude toward his duties as both the Navigator and the Medical Assistant before he decides to assign him to helping Steth with the repairs. On board Steth's ship, Paris gets to know its pilot a little better with some friendly conversation concerning Steth's previous flying missions and Paris' taking his father's shuttle out for a joyride, though at one time when Paris' back was turned, Steth for a moment briefly transforms into an alien humanoid female of another species. Log Entries *''Captain's log, stardate 51762.4. The repairs to Steth's coaxial drive have been completed, well ahead of schedule. '' *''Captain's log, supplemental. The Doctor has treated Mister Paris' phaser wounds, but has been unable to wake him. The motive for his attack remains a mystery. '' *''Captain's log, stardate 51775.2. While the alien intruder remains trapped in the body of his last victim, the Doctor has found a way to return Tom, Steth and me to our own bodies. '' Background Information * The design of Steth's ship was re-used in a number of Voyager episodes ( , , , and ). Interestingly, it also appeared in an episode of Joss Whedon's TV series Firefly. * This episode appears to have been partly inspired by the Original Series episode . * The term "Vis à Vis" (pronounced veez a vee) is the French term for "face to face". *In a continuity error, Steth mentions being offered the chance to pilot a Mithrin-class ship. However, contact with Mithrin was mentioned several times, mostly by Neelix in Season 2, 10,000 light years from where the events of this episode take place. (For an example, view Season 2 episode ). It is safe to assume that the script writers simply recycled the name "Mithrin" for use in this episode. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 4.10, catalogue number VHR 4631, . *As part of the VOY Season 4 DVD collection. Links and References Guest Stars *Dan Butler as Steth *Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Daelen References Advanced Subspace Geometry; alcohol; Avek; Benthan Guard; Benthan system; Benthos; biobed; blood; box wrench; California; Camaro; carbon monoxide; carburetor; cardiopulmonary reconstruction; Chevy; chromoelectric pulse; coaxial warp drive; DNA stability analysis; eidetic memory; Entaban; exatanium; genetic virus; golf; Highway One; isokinetic containment field; Kaplan; Kendren IV; Kendren system; Kotaba Expanse; Lake Tahoe; metabolic referent; ''Mithran'' class; neurological scan; Ninipia Prime; Paris Program Alpha-1; physio-sensor; plasma manifold; polaric modulator; polyduranide; sand wedge; scan emitter; symmetric warp field; Trakian ale External Links *"Vis à Vis" at FiveMinute.net * |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Vis-à-vis es:Vis à Vis nl:Vis à Vis